AURORA | A second Aurora man is facing life in prison for the brutal kidnapping and gang rape of two women in separate 2011 attacks.
Omar Ricardo Godinez, 17, was convicted Aug. 23 of second degree kidnapping, sexual assault and conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping and sexual assault for his role in two attacks where women were grabbed off the street, taken to an Aurora home and brutally raped by multiple men.
At sentencing in November, Godinez, who was 15 at the time of the attacks but charged as an adult, faces a minimum sentence of 26 years in prison. Under the state’s sentencing rules for sex crimes, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Godinez’s brother, Edgar Godinez-Solis, 31, was convicted last year for his role and sentenced to 35 years to life in prison. Two other men were involved in the attacks, prosecutors said, but they have not been identified. Lisa Pinto, a spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County district attorney’s office, said investigators are still working on the case.
According to prosecutors, the Godinez brothers and the two other men kidnapped a 33-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl in October and November 2011. In the first case, prosecutors said one the men grabbed the 33-year-old woman at South Salem Street and East Ford Avenue. The woman was walking to get diapers for her child, prosecutors said.
The second woman was grabbed two days later near South Peoria Street and East Exposition Avenue.
Each time, the kidnappers covered the woman’s face, threw her in a car and drove her to a nearby home where they raped her in a basement bedroom. The attackers told the women they would be killed if they went to the police, but both women reported the attacks despite the threats.
DNA evidence linked the brothers to the attacks, prosecutors said.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Cori Alcock and Deputy District Attorney Cara Morlan prosecuted the case. In a statement announcing the convictions, they said: “This is the nightmare scenario that every woman walking alone at night fears. Godinez’s heinous assaults on these two women must not be excused because of his youth. Our brave victims faced Godinez in front of a jury and recounted the horrors of their ordeals. Because of their strength and courage, we were able to achieve justice today. The determination that they showed in cooperating with the police and their own vigilance identifying details during the assault were key factors in the prosecution of this case.”
District Attorney George Brauchler said in the statement that Godinez’s conviction illustrates why some juvenile defendants deserve to be charged as adults.
“This case should serve as a reminder to those who believe that all juveniles should be treated lightly by our criminal justice system that they are gravely mistaken. Some juvenile offenders are capable of heinous, cruel pre-meditated attacks like these,” he said.